Recently, my husband asked me THAT question: “what do you do all day?” It wasn’t that sentence exactly, but it basically boiled down to that. And so rather than stab him with the sausage I was cooking at the time, I figured instead I’d write down one of my days and see what I do actually do all day. Maybe there is some extra time in there I might be able to salvage. Because sometimes I wonder myself how the day is almost over and I haven’t had a shower, written a post, answered any emails or even thought about all the paperwork I should have done months ago. But I also know I certainly don’t sit on the couch watching TV for hours on end. Or read magazines or books. And while I’ll pop on occasionally on my phone, even social media and Pinterest and blogs have taken a back seat to whatever it is that consumes my days. And to be honest, I’m still none the wiser about what that actually is! Even after this exercise. I’m just… busy.

7.30am: Get up and iron Steve’s shirt while he’s in the shower. Stop 3 fights while doing so. Immy wants to be picked up. Make beds and wave bye to Steve.

7.50am: Make toast for the kids for breakfast one handed – Immy just wants to be held. Let her eat toast on floor after she refuses to sit in high chair and whip up Zak’s lunch. Start harassing him to get dressed. He runs around yard and refuses to get dressed.

8.05am: Get Layla dressed, Immy changed and dressed. Immy takes almost as long as Zak because she hates lying still and will just run away from me. Put her nappy on while she walks down the hallway.

8.10am: Zak still not dressed. Yell. Scream. Threaten. Bribe. We brush our teeth and hair and wash faces. Spend time hunting down Zak’s home reader book, signing the sheet and packing his lunchbox, drink bottle and hat in bag.

8.20: Zak finally starts to get dressed. Then goes outside without his shoes on.

8.30am: Finally Zak is dressed. I am not. Throw big jacket over pyjamas and shove on Converse shoes and thank God for the fact that I wear yoga pants and a normal long-sleeved top to bed.

8.30am: Walk to school. Layla walks in every puddle and gets filthy dirty. Immy protests about being in Baby Bjorn. I let her walk once we’re in the school grounds. She and Layla run/jump/practically swim in the puddles, freezing temperature be damned.

9.15am: Back home, change the two soggy wet girls and put out two loads of washing (the rain has meant the previous lot didn’t dry so they’re going back out again). The girls want to help with the pegs so I have to hang the clothes over the line, lift them up and let them put the pegs on. Takes three times as long. Put on another load of washing.

9.40am: Get Layla sorted with colouring in. She wants to do craft NOW. Hold off on tantrum by telling her we will be doing craft very soon.

9.45am: Set up shot for cushion I was sent to write about on the blog. Includes pretending to upholster a chair by masking taping some fabric around it. Immy “helps” me by constantly stealing the props and rearranging my set-up.

10.10am: Take some pictures of my new printer for a blog post and hook up camera to take snaps off onto computer.

10.20am: Layla brings the slippery dip inside. Thanks Layla. Put it back in the yard and get them some morning tea.

10.30am: Shower. Not without a visitor – Immy – who keeps flicking open the curtain and then slips over on the slippery floor.

10.40am: Out of shower, dressed and load kids up in car.

10.50am: Drive to petrol station to buy some bribes – the girls are being immunised so I need something to “reward” them with. The lady behind the counter gives me some activity packs they have for road trips so that keeps them busy in the waiting room. Which is good because despite our 11.15 appointment, we don’t get to see the doctor until after 12pm.

1.05pm: Back home and Immy of course fell asleep 5 minutes from home. Worried about transfer to bed as she NEVER transfers and it usually takes me at least 20 minutes to get her to sleep, but she stays asleep and lets me pop her in bed without a feed, without a fuss. Miracle.

1.10pm: Layla and I make some toasted sandwiches for lunch. While it’s cooking, I hang some more washing on the line.

1.25pm: After lunch I jump in the recycling bin to make more stuff fit. We have lots of cardboard this fortnight as I’ve finally emptied a few more moving boxes. Layla glues some photo paper together I’ve printed out and I cut out some memory cards for a blog post and

1.30pm: Start building a wall in the garage – nailing some thin bits of plywood into the exposed studs to create a false wall as a backdrop for some of my shoots.

1.50pm: Layla bugs me about craft again. Get her set up with some Ice Age printables, glue, glitter paint, pom poms and more. She collages until her heart is content. Then she glues some printed pages together and I cut out the memory game for a blog post. Leave her to her collage

2.15pm: Sweep the house. Joy.

2.25pm: Check the bank and wake up Immy. Time to get Zak.

3.20pm: Home later than normal as the kids had a play in the playground at the school and we chatted with some friends. Pop some biscuits on a plate as afternoon tea.

3.25pm: Wash up breakfast and lunch dishes. By hand. This house has no dishwasher, but hands in really hot water for a while is almost worth it. It is FREEZING! The kids play their new memory game and I snap some pictures of them playing.

3.4opm: Immy sulking and just wants to be fed. Attempt to read some emails and catch up on Twitter/Facebook/Instagram.

4pm: Bundle up the kids and walk to the shops to get some bread and meat for dinner. It is freezing!

My time consumers….

4.30pm: Kids play in the yard and I throw some balls to Zak as cricket practice. Take some more snaps for a blog post.

5pm: Getting dark so the kids come in and I start getting dinner ready. Witching hour(s) begin. Steve leaves work and calls me on the road. We chat on speaker phone while Immy whinges in my ear and I attempt to cut onion with one hand. Place Immy on counter and keep talking/cooking/stopping her from falling.

6pm: Kids eat dinner. Immy jumps in high chair if there is corn or spaghetti on her plate. Luckily, tonight is spaghetti night. She sits, I sit by myself next to her and manage to have a bite to eat. Steve gets home and goes for a run.

6.30pm: Bath time! Steve gets Immy dressed while I get Layla and Zak washed and organise their PJs. Organising their PJs means placing them on the heater for a few seconds so they are toasty warm. Our house is freezing cold and this is how I get them out of the bath promptly – by promising toasty PJs. The kids hang out and chat, Zak does home reader and they hang out with Dad.

7pm: I feed and put Immy to bed.

7.30pm: Story time for the bigger kids – I’m reading The Magic Faraway Tree at the moment, so it’s a few pages at a time. They love it – so do I. It was one of my faves as a kid. I take some pics of Zak pretending to be asleep for my bedSOK review.

7.45pm: I sit down and hang out with Steve. Work on a post for the blog and check emails. I have THOUSANDS of unread emails in my inbox. Most of them spam but I know there are things in there I haven’t replied to and I feel awful. One day (week/month/year?) I will get to them all.

9pm: We eat dinner in front of the TV – if it’s sport I watch it and think about all I have to do. If it’s QI I’ll watch it. I shove a ridiculous amount of chocolate down my gob and go back to working on my blog post. Editing images and writing and editing and uploading images and inserting links… it is so time consuming. We chat, watch and I blog. I also squeeze in a little craft planning and Pinterest searching and reply to some urgent emails.

11.30pm: Immy is awake. It’s our cue for bedtime. She won’t go back to sleep in her bed and I’m too tired to fight her, so in she comes with us after a snuggle on the couch with Steve. At least it’s warm now…

So there you have it. A day in my life (obviously a week ago when school was in). This doesn’t include the number of fights I had to break up, the number of times I had to stop what I was doing to wipe a nose, change a nappy, help someone on the toilet, get them a drink, watch something they’re doing, help them spell a dinosaur’s name or cuddle and comfort Immy when she’s fallen over. And goodness help me on days I have to pay bills or talk to someone on the phone. That really takes it out of me. I’m not sure what I could have left out to gain more time. I could get up earlier and get showered and dressed and do some stuff, but… I could not let Immy and Layla help me with the washing, but why stop them from doing housework? I could not let Immy walk home so we’d get back quicker, but she would scream and wriggle all the way home, plus she really enjoys it…

So I guess I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing and hope that one day it will all click into place and I’ll magically have more time. Hopefully….